4 Takeaways from PSG’s narrow win over local rivals Paris FC

Last night, Paris Saint-Germain secured a narrow 2-1 home win over their city rivals Paris FC at the Parc des Princes thanks to goals from Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué. The victory brought the French Champions just one point behind RC Lens in the table.

Now Les Rouges et Bleus will travel to Kuwait to face their biggest rivals Marseille in the Trophée des Champions in a game set to be memorable for every French football fans. In the past, these encounters brought plenty of excitement and this one shouldn't be an exception.

Here are the four main talking points from PSG's narrow win against PFC in the derby.

Four main talking points from PSG's 2-1 win against Paris FC

1) A rivalry rekindled, where absence has not made the heart grow stronger.

In a strange quirk of history, this was actually the first game between these two sides in quite some time – the rivals hadn’t met in a competitive fixture, incredibly, since December 1978. Strangely, they now will play each other twice in quick succession, having been drawn against each other in the Coupe de France as well. Despite this interval, the PSG fans certainly don’t seem to have forgotten their animosity with the visiting team, with a spectacular pre-match tifo exclaiming ‘Paris, it’s ours’, displayed before kick-off. Paris FC will no doubt seek to return the favour during the return fixture, currently scheduled for May.

2) Doué and Dembélé back amongst the goals

Perhaps the best feature of yesterday’s game from a PSG point of view was just how sharp Desiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé both looked on their return to the first team after a tumultuous and injury-hit start to the season. Both Doué, with a powerful finish, and Dembélé, with a deflected long ranger, were among the goals, and both dazzled throughout the night with their footwork and directness, constantly switching wings and terrorizing the Paris FC defence. They were both also given half an hour’s rest by Luis Enrique, who perhaps had one eye on Thursday’s ‘Trophée des Champions’ clash against Marseille.

3) Zabarnyi and Chevalier back in defence

Two men who had found themselves slightly out of favour over the last month or so in Paris were Illia Zabarnyi and Lucas Chevalier – both of whom displaced, by the returning Marquinhos and by Matvey Safonov, respectively, after promising initial starts to the season. Both of them overall looked solid on their returns to the pitch yesterday, although Zabarnyi was at fault in conceding the penalty that momentarily saw Paris FC level the game at 1-1.

The Ukrainian centre-back made up for this error with a solid display that saw him confidently step out of the back line and impose himself on Paris FC’s attackers; a fine performance that Luis Enrique will be pleased with. As for Chevalier, he showed no signs of the error-prone goalkeeping that plagued his game over the start of the season, which he will also be delighted with.

4) Mendes: PSG’s best player?

Having such a balanced and even starting side has made it hard to pinpoint who exactly PSG’s best player is. After all, Ousmane Dembélé has won the Ballon D’or, so surely he is the star man, right? But Doué is the player they often turn to for the big moments, and Vitinha keeps things ticking over and is irreplaceable with his precision and composure, and, well, William Pacho and Achraf Hakimi are among the best and most accomplished players in their respective positions.

But among all the noise, increasingly one man stands out as PSG’s most extraordinary player: left back Nuno Mendes. The Portuguese star was once again incredible last night: locking up any Paris FC forward who dared run at him before gliding effortlessly through opposing players with the ball. There has been little doubt for a while that Mendes is the best left back in the world, but his recent level has been so extraordinary that he surely is now in a conversation involving historical players in that position. At the moment, no praise is too high for him.